Instead of calming down people and enable them to go about peacefully in their daily lives, antidepressants could actually do the opposite, scientists say. A study carried out at the Oxford University shows that men and women – in their late teens and early 20s – had an almost 50 percent more chance of getting convicted of offences ranging from assault to murder when consuming SSRI drugs.
This group of anti-depressants includes Prozac, as well as Seroxat, Lustral, Cipralex and Cipramil. These tablets even carry a warning label that the drugs are linked to suicidal thoughts in young people. It was also thought to be linked to violence but there wasn’t much evidence to support that claim until now.
Oxford psychiatrist Senna Faze tracked more than 800, 000 Swedes aged 15-plus, who had been prescribed SSRIs, for the study. He compared their behaviour when they were on pills to when they were off them. He concluded that, “People who were aged between 15 and 24 had a 43 per cent higher risk of committing a violent crime when medicating compared to when not medicating”, according to the Daily Mail.
This study was published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
